1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a recording apparatus such as an electrophotographic reproducing machine, and in particular, to a recording apparatus wherein it is possible to easily open the interior of the apparatus if troubles such as paper jamming should occur therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a conventional type of electrophotographic reproducing machine is arranged in such a manner that, after paper has been fed into the interior of the machine, an image is recorded on the paper, and the paper is discharged. If the paper jams while it is being fed, namely, if paper jamming occurs in the interior, the body is opened so as to remove the jammed paper.
Heretofore, the following two types of recording apparatus have been available. One is a clam shell type of apparatus having a body which can be vertically divided and the other is SHUTTLEX 850 (tradename registered by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.) which is arranged such that a fixing unit, a paper feed unit and so forth are moved in parallel to each other in the direction away from a photosensitive drum for the purpose of obtaining a space for removing jammed paper. However, the former clam shell type involves disadvantage in that a large number of parts are required and a long man-hour is needed, resulting in an increase in costs. Similarly, the latter "SHUTTLEX" type requires a large number of parts and more man-hours for assembly, thus leading to complexity in adjustment and an increase in cost as well as inferior operability.
The reproducing apparatus generally used in office work commonly has a rectangular parallelepiped configuration so as to efficiently utilize a space during the conveyance and in the installation of the apparatus. Therefore, the framework of the apparatus is constituted by a body frame wherein front and rear panels are connected to a bottom plate, and each panel which is mounted on the left and right side of the frame so as to form a paper discharging section and a paper feeding section, a document glass plate being laid on the upper opening of the frame. Such a body frame has heretofore been formed in such a manner that, after each of the panels and the bottom panel which are individually worked has been subjected to surface treatment, the treated panels are integrally assembled by bolting or caulking spot welding.
In such a prior art, it is necessary to mount on the body frame of the reproducing apparatus a mounting reference member, a guide member and so forth in addition to the above-described document glass plate, for the purpose of mounting an optical system and an image forming section. However, since the body frame is made of a metal sheet, it is impossible to integrally form all the panels of the body frame.
For this reason, the above-mentioned mounting reference member and the guide member have to be individually produced and fixedly added to the body frame. In consequence, the production of the body frame requires a large number of parts and many man-hours, thereby lowering the yield of the production of articles, thus resulting in occupying a large percentage of the price of the reproducing apparatus.